Being Indian In Hueyapan Summary

Following the Mexican Revolution, many professionals studying in their fields were allowed to trace the roots of the various cultures of Mexico, including the Indian culture. This Indian culture of Mexico remains well hidden except in the tiny village of Santo Domingo Hueyapan, Morelos, Mexico or just simply called Hueyapan. Through studying of various cultures, one controversial question concerning the Indian heritage still exists: Is it wrong to encourage Indians to be proud of their culture? To help answer this question, I turn to the help of the book Being Indian In Hueyapan: A Revised And Updated Edition by Judith Friedlander. Friedlander, the author, writes a detailed description of her study while living in the village of Hueyapan. Unlike most books, this provides an interesting point of view by beginning with a description of Dona Zeferina’s family and how they lived during the early 1970s. While you may expect Indians living in Mexico to be living in housing slums (dirty, falling down houses), this is actually not the case with Zeferina and her family. They live together in a modest living situation, in comfortable separated adobe rooms with a roof covering each …show more content…
This is where she decided to pursue a different subject for her book and to study the culture of the Indians in Hueyapan and ask them what it meant to be Indian. Much of her book Being Indian In Hueyapan: A Revised And Updated Edition dives into studying the native culture in Hueyapan; for example, the case study of Zeferina and her family. However, as recently discussed in my First Nations 368 class was the topic of this essay: Is it wrong to encourage Indians to be proud of their